Dronentrepreneurs: Where else but in Namma Bengaluru

Government Flying Training School in Jakkur will train and licence drone pilots, one of the hottest jobs of the future

It’s cool, it’s got street cred and it’s the future! And it’ll take your CV to the top of the heap on the HR manager’s table.

And that career, that of a drone pilot, which is expected to emerge as one of the hottest jobs in the near feature, has a training school, right here in Bengaluru.

With drones being used for everything from filming weddings to recording football matches for top-down shots, shooting scenes from films, to spraying fields with insecticides, at a fraction of the cost of a helicopter, the potential for its use is immense and entrepreneurs are sitting up and taking notice.

Now you can be a certified drone pilot too

The Government Flying Training School (GFTS) in Jakkur, which is one of the DGCA-approved flying training organisations to train drone pilots, is expected to commence its drone course early next year.
The training module which would be for a duration of two weeks would include an introductory session, simulation training, practical training on a real drone and a competitive exam.

“DGCA mandates that anybody who is introduced to the aviation ecosystem has a thorough knowledge about the operating systems hence the introductory session would include subjects on air traffic, flight plan, safety security, understanding of the Indian law and also, penalties. This will be followed by the simulation and practical training and a competitive exam for which DGCA has fixed 75 as the pass mark.

In fact, after each module, there will be an instant online test,” Raejus Job, one of the four designated master trainers in country and who will oversee the drone training in GFTS, told Bangalore Mirror.

Raejus said that four trainers from GFTS will be training the drone operators when the course commences.

“All the operations (training) would take place inside the GFTS premises. We have three simulators and the equipment is in place,” Raejus said.

He added that clearance from the DGCA is awaited on the number of drones they would be operating. They will also have to get the No permission-No Take-off (NPNT) clearance.

GFTS sources said that clearance from DGCA is expected soon and that training would in all probability commence in January 2019.

With the Ministry of Civil Aviation Drone Regulations 1.0 having already come into effect from December 1, pilots desirous of operating drones (micro and above category) will have to get themselves registered on the Digital Sky Portal.